82 MEMOIRS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Sphinges, with their peculiar swift, powerful lliglit, met with success in life nmcli l>eyiPii<l th;it of 

 the Cer;itoc;iiupi(l;i', from wliicli they probably <iriginated. 



We ha\e, from time to time, for thirty years past, insisted on the generalized and primitive 

 features of the Bombycine moths or those families generally included under this head, and iu)w it 

 seems very clear that they have retained many more vestigial characters, and are thus more 

 generalized and ancient groups than the Noetuida', Geonietrida', and Spliingida. 



Space has prevented our speaking of the vestigial cliaracters of tin' imagines < f the 

 Bombycine moths, such as the vestigial maxillary palpi of the Saturniida-. 



It is hoped that hereafter more attention will be paid to <i study of tlie pupal structures 

 of Lepidoptera, particularly of the Tineoid moths. And it need scarcely be urged that it is 

 most desirable that the authors of future catalogues of Lepidoptera will begin with the most 

 generalized forms, the tineids, and end with the butterflies, as being in better accord with the 

 results of recent studies and with the principles of evolution. lu that way there will gradually 

 be infused among collectors and beginners more scientific conceptions of the origin of tlie 

 Lepidoptera, and thus 'the collection and examination of these insects will have an educational • 

 value which at present seems in some quarters entirely lacking. 



